Taxonomies for public sector to merge

Added: (Tue Jul 27 2004)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Seamless access to public sector information comes a step closer - Government Category List, Local Government Category List and seamlessUK taxonomy to merge

Much of the essential information which people need in their daily lives is produced by public sector bodies such as the Health Service or Local Authorities. The Cabinet Office e-Government Unit, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and seamlessUK are pleased to announce that they are working together to merge the three lists which are used by national and local government plus other public sector bodies to index and categorise their information.

The e-Government Metadata Standard sets out the way in which organisations should apply metadata to describe their information resources. One element relates to the subject of the resource and until now organisations have been able to use any of the three term lists as source files for subject terms, which has led to confusion and difficulties in finding information.

Now however the list owners have agreed to work together to create a single unified list of categories and keywords that the public sector can use to describe their information resources. This standardisation should result in information resources being described more consistently across organisations, which should in turn make it easier for organisations to share information and for user searches to be more effective.

The work, which is funded by the new Local e-Government Standards Body, will be carried out by an independent taxonomy expert Stella Dextre Clarke and is expected to be completed by the Spring. Until then, the ODPM have stressed that organisations should continue to use any of the lists. Involvement of existing users of the three lists will be a key part of the process and more details of the consultation process will be issued shortly.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. e-GMS

The e-Government Metadata Standard (e-GMS) lays down the elements, refinements and encoding schemes to be used by government officers when creating metadata for their information resources or designing search interfaces for information systems. The e-GMS is needed to ensure maximum consistency of metadata across public sector organisations. The e-GMS forms part of the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF). Essential background and supporting documents can be found at http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/schemasstandards/metadata.asp and http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/interoperability/gcl.asp

2. LGCL
The list developed by the LAWs Project to define the subject matter of local government and related community resources according to a common vocabulary. The list builds on the work of the prior APLAWS project and has been refined following extensive dialogs with users. It offers category terms and 'lower level' terms to make it suitable for powering search engines. Category terms are mapped to Government Category List terms and to Local Government Service List services. http://www.esd.org.uk/standards/lgcl/

3. seamlessUK
seamlessUK ( www.seamlessUK.info) is a partnership of local, regional and national organisations working together to provide a one-stop citizen's gateway which integrates local and national information on health, education, employment, rights, benefits, government etc. in a single search. The project is led by Essex County Council and funded by the New Opportunities Fund. The project team have developed a number of tools and services including a cross-sectoral citizens' information taxonomy.

Already the seamlessUK system is available to over 3 million citizens in Essex, Medway, Bexley, Lewisham Croydon, Greenwich, Lambeth, and Southwark. National partners include: Age Concern, Common Purpose, National Council for Voluntary Organisations, (NCVO), UKOnline, BBC, Learndirect, Employment Agency, HMSO Inforoute, NHS UK, NHS Direct, Community Legal Service, National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NACAB), the Benefits Agency, Royal Association for the Deaf (RAD).



FOR PRESS FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Catherine Dhanjal, TheAnswer Ltd, Tel: 0208 655 0953/0794 166 9925

Catherine.dhanjal@theansweruk.com



OTHER CONTACT POINTS:

Fretwell Downing Informatics: Mark Allcock, Tel: +44 114 281 6040, email mark.allcock@fdisolutions.com



seamlessUK: For more information or to enquire about implementing seamlessUK in your authority please contact: Cathy Day or Jo Morris on 01245 436524, or seamlessUK@essexcc.gov.uk



27 July 2004 Ref: TA-224